Saluting the Fallen: The Navy Suffered 103 Casualties in the Iraq War

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began 10 years ago this week and although it officially ended three years ago, the killing has not stopped.

By one count, the war is directly responsible for 189,000 deaths, not including those who died from hardships caused by the fighting.

CNN has a stunning map of all the casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including hometowns of those lost and sites in combat zones where the fallen died.

According to the network's compilation, 54 people from San Diego County died in Iraq. In all, 4,802 Americans and allies have died in the war, CNN reported. Dozens of those deaths took place in 2011-12, despite the war's official end.

The Department of Defense also has a breakdown of war deaths by branch of the military. Of the 103 members of the Navy who died in Iraq, 62 were killed in combat. Nineteen died in accidents.

There are those with Coronado and San Diego connections among the dead:

• Marc Alan Lee, 28, of Hood River, Ore. was assigned to SEAL Team 3 out of Coronado. He died Aug. 2, 2006 in Ramadi.
• Michael A. Monsoor, 25, also of Team 3, died the following month, Sept. 29, 2006. A Lemon Grove VFA is named in his honor. 
• Nicolas Wilson, 25, of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3, died Feb. 12, 2006.
• Robert Douglas Macrum of the USS Princeton out of San Diego died Sept. 12, 2005. 
• David John Moreno of Naval Medical Center San Diego, died July 17, 2003.
• Michael Vann Johnson, 25, of the medical center, died March 25, 2003.
• Pablito P. Briones, 22, also of the medical center, died Dec. 28, 2004.

One of them, Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, 27, was the first U.S. Navy officer killed in Iraq. He perished with six others in a helicopter collision.

The 1993 graduate of Grossmont High School in La Mesa died three days after the March 19 start of the war while serving as a liaison officer with Britain’s Royal Navy. 

His mother, Marilyn Adams, who resides near Mount Helix, recalled how the Vietnam War affected her generation, leading to a lack of support at home.

She saluted Tom’s friends at the Naval Academy and in the military as “an amazing group of people … and we owe them our honor and respect and friendship.”

In the years since Tom’s death – his 20-year high school reunion will take place without him this July – his parents say they have been embraced by an “incredibly wonderful” network of friends.

“The Royal Navy particularly not only effectively adopted us as their own, they continue to do so ... until this day,” his father John Adams said, noting that British liaison officers at North Island Naval Air Station will “look us up and make a connection.”

For more personal stories of the Navy's fallen, see freedomremembered.com, which lists obituaries for service members who died in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Washington Post also has compiled a list of Navy deaths in both wars.

Casualties from other military branches are listed in both compilations as well.

Associate regional editor Ken Stone contributed to this report.